Low-Cost Construction

Techniques For

Earth Keepers

Introduction

Straw has been used as a building material by many cultures for
many centuries. In the Old Testament we read about the Israelites using straw
and mud to construct monuments for the Egyptian rulers. Use of mud and straw
mixtures to build walls is still prevalent in Africa, Middle East, Asia, and
China. Straw has been a standard material used for roofs by many cultures and
even today in Ireland and Scandinavian countries one can see thatched roofs in
rural areas.

The Construction Techniques described in this manual use straw
as filler in wall sections. It further describes how one need not have to bale
the straw to use it for wall construction. Straw-bale construction started at
the turn of the century when John Deer invented a straw baling machine and the
pioneers in the Northwestern part of Nebraska started to use straw bales as
construction materials. Even today one can find houses built with straw bale and
plastered with cement standing in Nebraska.

The author used the techniques described in this manual to build
plasteredd straw structures in Indea and Pennsylvania. The pictures in the
following pages should provide sutfficient information for anyone to construct a
low-cost, earth-friendly building using straw as building material for the
walls.

One can find a number of web sites on te Internet that profvide
valuable information on owner built and conventionally built straw bale houses.
These houses are found to be comfortable as they damp out noises and have a high
R-Values that far exceeds the code requirements. They are also safe as far as
fire is concerned. Tests conducted by Underwriters Laboratory and other National
Laboratories found the fire ratings of the plastered straw bale walls to be well
above the requirements. There have been no reporting of termite infestation or
other insect damages to the plastered straw bale walls.

The author estimates that a plastered straw house in Indea costs
one-fourth of a brick and mortar house and keeps the inside temperature 10 to 15
deg. F below the summer outside temperature. It was also noticed that these
houses could be built with very little skill by the owners themselves and
therefore, results in considerable savings to the owner builder.

Step 1. Lay the foundation for this building using standard methods. As the
walls are not load bearing, a concrete foundation of 6 inches depth is
sufficient. Dig at least 24 inches holes to set the treated poles and pour
concrete for strength and stability.

Step 2. Build the frame work as shown in the photograph below. Fasten rigid
fence material (not chicken wire) to the posts and create a 9 inches to 12
inches cavities.

Step 3. Fill the cavities with straw or other waste materials like carpet
padding, shredded paper, and styrofoam packaging materials.

Step 4. Plaster the inside and outside of the walls with mud dug from the
foundation and let it dry for a couple of days.

Step 5. Plaster the walls with cement and sand mixture (1 part of cement to 5
parts of sand). Paint the walls with desired color paint.

Pre-fabricated Wall Panels(Technique 2)

Step 1. Make a 3'x5' (the wonder boards come in 3'x5' size) frame using 2"x6"
lumber.

Step 2. Fasten the wonder board to one side of the 3'x5' wooden frame.